Deals of the day- Mergers and acquisitions

June 30 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2000 GMT on Thursday:

** Hershey Co said on Thursday it had rejected a $23 billion preliminary offer by Mondelez International Inc that would seek to expand the latter's limited U.S. footprint and create the world's largest confectioner.

** Lions Gate Entertainment Corp, the film studio behind the Hunger Games movies, said Thursday it would buy premium television network Starz for $4.4 billion in cash and stock, in a deal that would unite two media companies with ties to cable mogul John Malone.

** Airbus Group and Safran pledged on Thursday to make Europe competitive in the face of U.S. low-cost rival SpaceX as they completed a deal to merge their space launcher activities.

** South Africa's Competition Tribunal granted conditional approval for the proposed merger of about $100 billion by brewer Anheuser-Busch Inbev and SABMiller, the antitrust authority said on Thursday.

** Canadian chemical maker Superior Plus Corp said it scrapped the acquisition of rival Canexus Corp as they could not agree on terms, two days after the C$324 million ($251 million) deal was approved by Canada's antitrust regulator.

** Japan's anti-monopoly regulator has approved Canon Inc's acquisition of Toshiba Corp's medical equipment unit, but issued a warning over the way they carried out the deal, which antitrust experts have called questionable.

** Dick's Sporting Goods Inc, the largest U.S. sporting goods retailer, is set to win the auction for the intellectual property of bankrupt competitor Sports Authority with a bid of $15 million, according to people familiar with the matter.

** Rupert Murdoch's News Corp has agreed to buy the owner of Britain's talkSPORT in a $292 million deal that unites The Sun newspaper's sports coverage with the commercial radio network that broadcasts Premier League and FA Cup soccer.

** Hungarian drugmaker Richter said it had acquired Swiss biotech company Finox Holding for 190 million Swiss francs ($194 million), expanding its presence in major European markets.

** French aerospace group Safran, which is selling its Morpho biometrics and security business, has narrowed the field to a shortlist of five bidders including digital security rivals Gemalto and Oberthur, a person familiar with the matter said.

** Motoring group AA Plc said it had agreed to sell its Irish business to a Carlyle Group fund and financial services buyout team for 156.6 million euros ($173.7 million).

** Portugal's central bank received four offers for Novo Banco, the "good bank" successor to Banco Espirito Santo after a state rescue in 2014, by the Thursday afternoon deadline, it said in a statement, without naming the institutions.

** British private equity firm 3i has no plans to dispose of its investment in Dutch discount retailer Action despite a number of approaches, the company said on Thursday.

** U.S. generic drugmaker Mylan NV has offered concessions in a bid to allay concerns by EU competition regulators over its proposed $7.2-billion acquisition of Swedish rival Meda, the European Commission said on Thursday.

** InterOil Corp, which agreed last month to be acquired by Australia's Oil Search Ltd, said it received an unsolicited offer from an unnamed bidder, with whom it would engage in further talks.

** Unions representing workers at Brazil's state-led Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras SA intend to fight government plans to sell some of the cash-strapped electricity-utility holding company's businesses. (Compiled by Anya George Tharakan and Amrutha Penumudi in Bengaluru)